Lawmaker wants to bar children under 12 from playing football
A New Jersey assemblywoman wants youth tackle football to be outlawed in her state.
Valerie Vainieri Huttle, a Democrat from Bergen County, said this week that she is planning to introduce legislation that would bar children under the age of 12 from playing tackle football.
Huttle said it’s too risky to have kids that young tackling. “Even with helmets, it can be detrimental,” she said via WCBS-TV in New York.
Neighborhood news site TAP Into Hasbrouck Heights/Wood-Ridge/Teterboro obtained a copy of the proposed bill, which points to recent studies about chronic traumatic encephalopathy:
This bill prohibits children under the age of 12 from participating in organized tackle football programs. … Athletes who begin playing contact sports at younger ages are at a greater risk for neurological impairment later in life, including CTE. Studies show that exposure to tackle football before the age of 12 is associated with a greater risk of neurological impairment than exposure to tackle football starting at or after the age of 12.
“The constant head impacts can create injuries now or later on. … I think parents should be aware of the risks,” Huttle said via News 12 New Jersey.
Some parents are already speaking out against her plan.
John Braun, who runs the Kenilworth Youth Football League, told WCBS that his son “has been playing in our program since he was 4 years old.”
Braun said the boy, who now plays on the high school JV team, has avoided injuries because he started young and learned proper technique.
Scott Bray, the head football coach at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, agrees that starting kids playing football at a younger age can even keep them safer.
Bray told News 12 that football is less dangerous now than it has ever been.
“They made football safer, even with helmets and teaching different tackling techniques and taking a lot of hitting out of practice,” he said.
Others believe banning youth football represents government overreach, saying it should be up to parents to weigh the risks and decide whether their children should play.
Mary Hall of Bridgewater told News 12 that her teenage sons have played football most of their lives.
“The fact that the trainers are constantly on top of them, that coaches are on top of them, makes me feel a lot safer,” she said. “I also have cheerleaders, and I think they got hurt just as much as the football players.”
Legislation like Huttle’s has been introduced in several other states, including Illinois and California.
A bill in Maryland to ban tackle football before high school died in committee.
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